Hold Congress Accountable

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Coming off a week-long recess and without any significant legislative victories this year, the pressure is on the Senate this week to pass the FY 2018 budget resolution, S.Con.Res. 25, which provides reconciliation instructions for fundamental tax reform. The House passed its own version of the FY 2018 budget, H.Con.Res. 71, on October 5 by a vote of 219 to 206.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs made the statements below on the recent developments at the White House concerning health insurance. Concerning Thursday’s executive order about association health plans, Jason Pye said:

FreedomWorks today announced the FreedomFighter Award winners for 2016. The FreedomFighter Awards recognize members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty. FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon and FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jason Pye presented the awards Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol Visitors Center. Photos of the individual presentations are available here.

Over the past several years, there has been a move to make college campuses an ideological bubble where only preferred and pre-approved perspectives are allowed, known as “safe spaces.” It seems this line of thinking is not only on college campuses as some of our politicians have been calling for that as well. Most recently, Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen openly suggested turning the Federal Reserve into a safe space.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo to his staff last month that instructs prosecutors to charge suspects with the most serious provable offenses, "those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences”.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to call your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Reclassification to Ensure Smarter and Equal Treatment (RESET) Act, S. 1252, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The bill would reclassify several low-level felonies as misdemeanors, by lowering the prison time down to no greater than one year and no more than $1,000 for nonviolent drug offenses.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and urge them to support S.Con.Res. 17, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which was signed by President Barack Obama in April 2016.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) have introduced legislation that would repeal one of the tools that give Congress greater oversight of actions taken by federal agencies. Passed in 1996 as part of the Contract with American Advancement Act, the Congressional Review Act provided Congress with power to canceled rules finalized and published by federal agencies.